I shared the following article and it was recently published in the Dearborn County
Register (Laweranceburg, Indiana) on
July 23, 2013, and in the Rising Sun Recorder (Rising Sun, Indiana) on
July 24, 2013.
In
light of the recent death of young actor Cory Monteith, best known for his role
on Glee, I feel this is an important time to bring up the issue of drug use and
its consequences. I want to express my condolences at the loss of this young
life, and want to say that this article is not meant to monopolize on his death
but to show that he had fallen into an epidemic that has swept across our
nation, and is affecting young people everywhere.
As an
Alcohol and Drug counselor for over 20 years, I’m shocked at the number of
things parents, grandparents, brother/sisters, teachers, pastors, youth
pastors/workers don’t know about the
drug epidemic that is sweeping through our community, schools, families, and
sadly even churches. I’m becoming more and more convinced that it is so
important that we educate those that come in contact with people.
There
remains a great debate of what is the real cause of addiction, is it totally
physical, psychological, genetic, environmental, or nurturing? Having worked
with thousands of individuals with a many different addictions, including
alcoholism, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and even prescription drugs, I have
found that addictions do not care who you are.
There
are clear warning signs that we need to be aware of in regards to those
struggling with an addiction. As professionals we look at five basic factors
(you can use the same factors to help you determine if a friend or loved one is
addicted or developing an addiction).
• The
Physical: Fatigue, repeated health complaints, red and glazed eyes, sudden
weight loss, and a lasting cough
•
Emotional: Personality change, sudden mood changes, irritability, irresponsible
behavior, low self-esteem, poor judgment, depression, and a general lack of
interest.
• Family:
starting arguments, breaking rules, or withdrawing from the family.
• Value
System: Decreased interest, negative attitude, drop in grades, many absences,
truancy, and discipline problems. Spending time with new friends who are less
interested in standard home and school activities, problems and changes to less
conventional styles in dress and music.
• Legal:
Individual begins having a problem with the legal system, weed tickets,
underage consumption, and the progress to other crimes including selling,
possession, and even murder (accidental or intentional)
The question is often asked why and I have found some key
reasons by individual’s use, and as with anything there is no easy answer.
However, we have found some reasons that persist when talking to individuals
about why and how they started to use.
• Curiosity:
they want to experience new things (too bad they want to experience drugs).
• Rebellion:
Using drugs is rebellious and it’s illegal and forbidden.
• Peer
Pressure: They want to fit in with groups, especially those where drugs are
involved.
• Experimentation:
They don't realize that their actions today can lead to very bad consequences
tomorrow.
• Feelings:
Some teenagers tell themselves that they can control anything, that they can
control the use of drugs, but many fails and turn to addiction.
• Forgetfulness:
Teenagers turn to drugs to escape their problem with the environment he or she
lives in.
• Psychiatric:
Teenagers with mental illness like depression or a personality disorder are
more prone to abuse drugs.
• Weight
loss: Some drugs do suppress appetite, but addiction usually pushes the addict
to place little importance on health.
• False
Hope: Some teenagers who lose hope turn to drugs. Drugs are used as a
substitute for love. Teenagers who don't feel any love from someone to turn to
drugs and feel love by themselves.
Helping individuals coping with addictions is often not
easy. The first problem is that people with an addiction don’t see the problem
and are convinced that everything is going well. I have found a few things that
as family, friends, teachers, pastors, and etc we can do:
• Show
Love. It is not easy standing for what is right but showing them that you love
them, but will not compromise and give them permission to continue.
• Don’t
remove the legal obstacles, as difficult as it is I’m convinced that there
needs to be consequences for individual actions.
• Don’t
justify their actions, “it is not bad, it was only a little pot, or a few
drinks” that is giving them permission to do more.